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The Buzz, 11-14: Choices
How The Dance Insider Decides What to Review
By Paul Ben-Itzak
Copyright 2002 The Dance Insider
PARIS -- Today I'm going
to answer the most popular question asked by readers in the comment
section of our Dance
Insider Online Survey : "How do you decide what to review?"
To be reviewed on The
Dance Insider, a concert has to interest me and a reviewer. It's
more important that it interest the reviewer. Even if a company
is my personal favorite, if no reviewers are available or interested,
it won't be reviewed. Whereas, in nine out of ten cases, unless
the company is one I really really don't care for, I'm not going
to say no to a review from one of our fine Flashers, as long as
we have the space.
With companies that
I don't have a strong opinion about one way or the other, I may
assign a review more because of the writer available than the artist.
Part of the mission of The Dance Insider is to tell stories not
told elsewhere, and sometimes that story is as much the perspective
we can provide as the actual subject of the review.
Following are some examples
of concerts we've reviewed this fall, in most of which cases there
were other factors besides whether I cared for the work of the artists
involved. (This might be a good point to emphasize that I speak
only for myself, and can't explain what might make a writer decide
to review a given concert. Often, where we don't review a concert,
it's simply because no one among our writers, most of whom are themselves
busy dance artists, is available.) In each case below we've provided
a link to the review in question.
Gina
Gibney Dance, reviewed October 8 by Douglas Frank, at
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church: This is one of those companies
about which I don't have strong opinions one way or the other. This
program, however, was opening the Danspace Project season, and also
featured a live chorus. I'd been corresponding with a chorale director,
Douglas Frank, who clearly knew how to express himself. So, I thought,
as music was billed to play a major role in this concert, instead
of a dance critic, why not send a music expert?
Stephen
Petronio Company, reviewed October 17 by Nancy Dalva,
at the Joyce Theater: With all respect to the fierce dancing, Petronio's
is actually choreography I don't care for. However, this concert
was pitched to me by an ace writer, Nancy Dalva, from whom I would
be glad to read golf play-by-play, let alone a review of any dance
concert.
Complexions,
reviewed November 6 by Corinne Imberski, at Detroit's Music Hall
Center: Ah yes, the Complexions conundrums. Conundrum number 1:
This is rather a stealth company -- in seven years as an editor
assigning coverage on dance companies, I'd never received a press
release from Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson's troupe. But
these days, the company is represented (booked) by an ace agency
that realizes the value of cultivating journalists. When World Arts
Inc. sent me its artist brochure, I discovered that Complexions
was playing in Detroit. Conundrum number 2: Rhoden's is also choreography
that, with the exception of his solos created for Richardson, I
don't care for. It's thrilling the first time you see all those
legs go up, but I yearn for more than pyrotechnics. However, Rhoden
and Richardson are able to attract a stellar roster of dancers,
many of them veterans whose act it's hard to catch elsewhere these
days. So when I learned -- from the program info sent to me by WA's
Vincent Paul -- that one of my all-time favorites, Valerie Madonia
(formerly of the late Joffrey Ballet) would be performing with the
company, I asked Corinne Imberski to cover.
Complexions conundrum
number 3: Shortly after we posted Corinne's Flash -- which mostly
confirmed what I thought of Rhoden's limits -- I received my first
Complexions press release, from the intrepid Sergey Gordeev, pitching
the company's New York season Nov. 23-24 at the Hudson Theater,
and announcing: "Complexions is becoming a repertory company, presenting
works by William Forsythe, former Ailey dancer Uri Sands, and former
Donald Byrd dancer Thaddeus Davis." I'm tempted, but having just
reviewed the company, and negatively, I can't justify another review
so soon, even if the dancer roster does include the likes of former
Ailey stars Mucuy Bolles, Michael Thomas, Richardson, and Sands,
American Ballet Theatre star Sandra Brown, and former Elisa Monte
star Marden Ramos. However, if you want to check Complexions, please
call 866- 468-7619 for more information.
But, I hear you saying,
how come then, after Julia Ward, reviewing the Bolshoi June 20,
called Grigorovich's "Swan Lake" a "choreographic
muddle," did you assign Aimee Ts'ao to review the same
company in the same ballet just five months later, in
California? Initially, when Aimee pitched me, I resisted,
only because we had reviewed the company recently, and our reviewer,
while impressed with much of the dancing, was not impressed with
the piece. But finally I realized that Aimee Ts'ao is such a major
writer on ballet that we simply could not have her not weigh in
on the Bolshoi, circa 2002. And the thing about "Swan Lake" is that,
no matter how muddled the production, it's a standard for dancers
-- and a standard by which to measure them. And because of the Bolshoi's
stature among ballet companies, measuring its dancers also means
measuring the field by regarding its summit.
And speaking of important
writers on ballet: Susan Yung and Alicia Mosier are two of them.
So -- again, speaking for myself, not the writers -- with American
Ballet Theatre, which has been uneven over the past five years,
I assign reviews as much (if not more) because of the reviewers
as because of the company being reviewed. What I wouldn't give to
have them here in Paris, our superior critics (they being superior
to me), reviewing a superior company, the Paris Opera Ballet! To
read Susan's most recent review of ABT, please click
here. To read Alicia's, click
here.
Well, I hear you asking,
if you're not such a hot critic, why so much Paris Opera Ballet?
Because it's the best. And because I enjoy seeing it. (And this
latter is probably the major reason any of us pick certain concerts
-- because we like the artists.) To find my reviews of Paris Opera
Ballet, just enter "Paris Opera Ballet" in the search engine window
on our Home page.
But how do you know
you like the artist if you've never seen the company? you ask. For
all the companies I've never seen from which I receive press releases,
how do I decide whether to try to find them reviewers? Sometimes
it's an interesting press release. Sometimes (though this is not
a guarantee, and never plays into the reviewer's decision on whether
to take the assignment) it's the company placing an advertisement.
Sometimes, an artist has taken the time to make me aware of her
or his work. I've wanted to check Aleta Hayes's choreography ever
since we discussed it over coffee at NoHo seven years ago. So when
a press release arrived earlier this month announcing a concert
which included Hayes's "For the Love of the Dark One -- A Tale of
Meera," I jumped on it and immediately tried to get a reviewer.
I did, in Catey
Ott.
Finally, when it comes
to determining what we review, your input also matters. To tell
us what you'd like to see more of -- and to tell us who you are
-- please fill out the Dance
Insider Online Survey , and include your suggestions
in the Feedback section. The survey results will also help us secure
more advertising and sponsorships to pay our reviewers -- also essential
to getting as many concerts as possible reviewed.
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